Anne had been anxious the whole time. She didn't confide in anyone, not even Lise, that they had a shot at being rescued, lest their Republican Guard minders managed to get it out of them, or else they slipped up somehow. If something went wrong, she damn well didn't want to be the cause of it.

She wondered if Azuki reported the information to Captain Tsai. A good soldier would, but Azuki seemed to have an independent streak that defied her conditioning by the Empire. Maybe she had the same idea as Anne, that the fewer people who knew about it beforehand, the less likely the secret would be betrayed before it was time.

Anne found herself in the foyer with the others as Trinidad welcomed her guests. Carmelita showed up later than usual, and much to Anne's surprise and dismay, Maestro Da Souza wasn't with her. It took a while for her to find an opening to ask about it without sounding too unnatural.

It was Maestro Da Souza in the entourage of Prudencia Millares, who had just arrived. Prudencia was something of the black sheep of the group who only kept getting invites to avoid the scandal of an open rift with the daughter of Don Felis' close friend and the deputy rail commissioner.

Carmelita betrayed a frown before raising her fan to cover her mouth. Anne had no idea what Da Souza could have done to fall out of favor so dramatically between Trinidad's last party and now, but she had the feeling it was probably something petty. Da Souza probably had to scramble to find someone else in Trinidad's social circle to get him access to the Vertudo estate. If he had been driven into a corner, he didn't let it show now. In fact, he actually looked pretty smug about bypassing Carmelita. Maybe it was all part of the act.

Trinidad looked back and forth between Carmelita and Prudencia, uncertain of how to navigate the situation. She wasn't particularly fond of Prudencia, but her father did impress on her how important it was to maintain cordial relations with the Millares family.

Da Souza daintily held up the tail of his jacket and curtseyed to Trinidad.

Carmelita averted her eyes to pretend that she wasn't the one to show the bad form of tutting at Da Souza's flowery words. Da Souza gave a sly grin to show how gratified he was to get under her skin. Whether this was also part of the act or if he was letting his true feelings seep out, who could say?

Paying no further heed to Carmelita, Da Souza went to Azuki, fawning on her, saying, "Ah, my Queen of the Black Silk. How I've missed you."

Azuki was stiff as a board as Da Souza took her forelock in hand and stroked it. He then leaned in and seemed to whisper something to her.

Once he stepped away from her, almost reflexively, she said, "I must go to the toilet."

Anne sighed.

Anne figured Da Souza gave Azuki her cue to proceed with the escape plan, but she wanted to know what that plan was.

Azuki wasn't known for being particularly expressive, but Anne was pretty sure she sensed some annoyance when Azuki said, "Very well. Come, Lieutenant Detowa."

According to Root, Azuki's Franca had improved significantly since the time they first met, but she still struggled here and there. Anne thought it added to her charm.

The two of them went arm-in-arm to the guest ladies' room near the parlor. The Republican Guard keeping an eye on them posted himself outside the door as they went in.

Once inside, Anne leaned in and whispered, "Is it time? Are we doing this?"

Azuki then went into one of the stalls and closed the door. A mouse then scurried out from under the door. Even though Anne had seen Azuki do this before, she still jumped at the first sight of mouse-Azuki. It was made worse when Azuki crawled up her leg to conceal herself under Anne's skirt. Anne struggled a bit to suppress her instinctual reaction as she felt the little claws clinging to her stocking.

Composing herself as best she could, Anne made her way back out, walking rather stiffly as she did.

She noticed the Republican Guard give her a look when she emerged alone from the ladies' room. Motioning to the door, she said, "Her makeup needs a lot of work."

The Guard snorted at this. They weren't entirely humorless after all.

Anne went back to join the others. Da Souza didn't say anything to her, but he was watching her as she went and she gave a little nod to tip him off that Azuki was doing her thing. He returned the nod, so apparently he got the message.

Taking Lise's arm in hers, she said in a low voice, "Stay close to me."

And so the evening's festivities began and Anne's nerves were like a rubber band drawn taut while she waited for some signal that the escape attempt was about to commence. She wanted to give some kind of warning to the others, but she didn't want to draw any suspicion. When it came down to it, she expected Lieutenant Juliard and the Imperials to know how to handle themselves. That just left Miss Traux. She and Lise were going to be the biggest liabilities. If Anne was minding Lise, then maybe Lieutenant Juliard could handle Miss Traux.

She found herself looking around the room for potential threats. She was never in a position where she could get a clear count of the detail assigned to the estate. It was at least a platoon, some forty to fifty, she imagined. Then there were sixteen Republican Guards, operating in four teams of four with overlapping shifts so that there was always at least eight of them. Was there any plainclothes security as well? Anne didn't know.

There were about half a dozen officers among the guests, not counting Don Felis himself. Later in the evening, they and the other gentlemen guests would retire with Don Felis to the smoking room. That would probably be the best time to launch their escape attempt, but if Azuki was already at work, would the plan wait that long?

Da Souza had an entourage of six assistants, and while they usually stayed close to him, this time they had dispersed, subtly positioning themselves around the courtyard, close to the guards posted at the four entrances. Anne didn't feel right about these young men having to die for no better reason than having the bad luck to be stationed at a place like this when there were foreign hostages in need of rescue. However, this was war, or something close to it. There probably wasn't any better way.

She couldn't worry about the Malvinan soldiers. She had to focus on herself, on Lise, and on the others. If the escape attempt were to fail, any loss of life would be rendered pointless. At very least, that blood could buy their freedom.

With all this weighing on Anne's mind, she was approached by Captain Tsai with Samani close behind.

Captain Tsai looked around the courtyard and the realization seemed to dawn on her. She muttered something her translator device didn't seem to catch. She then set her sights on Da Souza and headed toward him. Anne followed after, pulling Lise along as they were still arm-in-arm.

Completely unfazed by her threatening tone, Da Souza breezily replied, "Oh, why, hello there, madame, and how might I be of service? Are you looking to schedule an appointment? We could try speaking to Don Felis' people so that I could arrange a house call."

Da Souza held his hand to his mouth, mocking girlish surprise.

It seemed to take the Captain a moment to realize how Da Souza chose to interpret her words. This did nothing to improve her mood.

Captain Tsai slapped him. He held his cheek in a melodramatic display of being wounded.

His voice then dropped as he said in a guttural whisper, "Maybe I oughta brought you in ta help."

A gunshot cracked in the distance. This got everyone's attention. More shots, sounds of distant shouting. There was a moment of confusion while people were trying to figure out what was happening and that moment of confusion provided an opening.

There was a blinding flash and then horrific screams as the guards at each of the four entrances to the courtyard burst into flames. This, of course, threw the guests into a panic. In the confusion, Da Souza dashed at the nearest Republican Guard, the same one who had followed Anne and Azuki to the powder room, and plunged a pair of scissors into the man's neck right as he was reaching for his sidearm. Da Souza then took the pistol from the Guard's holster and put two bullets in his chest.

Trinidad and her friends, who were already screaming because of the guards on fire, screamed even more. Da Souza snatched Trinidad to hold her as a human shield while two of his associates did the same with Carmelita and Prudencia.

Holding fast to a confused and terrified Lise, Anne did as he said. She was joined by Captain Tsai and Samani, with Lieutenant Juliard close behind, dragging along Miss Traux, pretty much exactly as Anne was expecting.

Two of the officers among the guests tried rushing at Da Souza, but they were unarmed and only succeeded in getting unceremoniously gunned down well before they could close the distance. Don Felis could be heard shouting orders between curses hurled at Da Souza.

They exited the courtyard on the west side, which gave them a clear shot to main entrance. Trinidad was trying to plead with Da Souza, offering him just about everything under the sun to let her go; Carmelita was falling over herself apologizing for dismissing him while competing with Trinidad's offers in a bid to get released first; and then poor Prudencia was just bawling her eyes out, blaming herself for letting all this happen.

Ignoring them, Da Souza said to Captain Tsai, "You'd better hope your dog is as good as your colonel says she is."

It took her a moment to piece it together.

Anne wanted to call the man out for his poor taste in humor, but now wasn't the time, and given the sort of person he was, there probably was never a time where it would be a good idea.

The man looked at his watch and replied, "21:12, boss."

Unslinging the bag he was carrying, he opened the flap and seemed to be turning some dials before throwing it back into the foyer as soon as they were out on the front porch.

Da Souza yanked Trinidad more forcefully.

They didn't get much farther when an explosion knocked them off their feet. Anne's ears were ringing as she picked herself back up, only for a second explosion to go off on the south side of the estate, at the guest house that served as the barracks for Don Felis' troops.

She felt one of Da Souza's men tugging on her arm and she reached out to help Lise to her feet. They weren't exactly dressed for running and these shoes certainly weren't helping either. The least she could do was kick off the shoes, but as she did, the man who was pulling on her arm jerked away from her. It was only when he hit the ground that she realized he had been shot in the face.

There were a couple more cracks of rifle fire, some indistinct shouting, then a snarling roar and those shouts turned to screaming. It was Azuki in her tiger form mauling the pair of soldiers who were shooting at them.

Anne's attention returned to Lise.

Anne looked down and saw Lise holding her stomach, the dark blood staining her hand.

She could feel herself losing control of her senses, like what happened in Heiankyoh, but this time she fought it. What would Root do?

She didn't know how many different ways she could tell Lise it was going to be okay for it to stick. She tried getting her on her feet, but as soon as she did, Lise cried out and her legs buckled under her. Anne caught her before she could fall to the ground.

There was no time for doubts or second guesses. Anne didn't know how well this would work, but she slung Lise over her shoulders in a fireman's carry. She was glad she got rid of her shoes. She'd never be able to do this in heels.

It was at least 300 meters to the woodline with them exposed on all sides. Azuki was trying to take out the soldiers on patrol, but there was only one of her and a lot more of them. Anne couldn't worry about any of that, though. She just had to focus on getting herself and Lise into the cover of the trees. She could worry about what came next when it came.

They didn't even get to the trees when a truck came barreling down the road, nearly turning on two wheels as it swerved off the road and headed toward them. It circled around and came screeching to a halt, kicking up a big cloud of dust as it did.

The back opened up and a familiar voice cried out in Franca.

Anne's heart leapt.

He was dressed in civilian clothes—a flat cap and an oversized coat—and had a good week's growth of whiskers, but it was definitely Root. He wasn't quite in shining armor, but her knight had come to rescue her.

As she was handing off Lise to Root, it felt like someone punched her in the back. Root toppled over, dropping Lise. While Anne was trying to catch her, she saw the hole in her chest. It was seeing it that made it so bad. The strength left her legs all at once and she crumpled onto the ground.

Her mind swam as she started to hyperventilate. What little sliver of her rational mind remained intact knew this wasn't helping, that she was only making it worse by panicking. But it was too late. Her consciousness was starting to fade. She was pretty sure the last thing she heard was Root calling her name.